(Welcome to our Christmas season for Internet Church. Enjoy and have a wonderful and rich Merry Christmas.)
Hope and Fear seem diametrically opposed
to each other don’t they? Some would say
“we hope for the best and fear the worst.”
Well, for our purposes, they belong
together.
We human beings are contradictions within
ourselves. We have many hopes and we
have many fears that those hopes will not be met.
Sounds like we are chasing our tails,
doesn’t it?
In the beloved Christmas carol O Little Town of Bethlehem we find this
phrase:
The hopes
and fears
of all the years
are met in Thee tonight.
The coming of the Messiah, the one who
will deliver, was foretold for many centuries before the birth of Christ
actually happened. For the children of
Israel, during their wandering in the desert for forty years, I’m sure many of
the old-timers in that great throng invoked this prophesy many times and prayed
out “Come promised one and deliver us
from our woes.”
The hope we all seek is for
redemption. We seek a fixer for our
woes. We want reconciliation,
forgiveness, and a benefit plan that is the ultimate.
That is our hope.
What we fear is hardship, sadness,
despair, loss and lack.
Do you see how the coming of Christ to
Bethlehem meets both our hopes and fears?
Do you see the hope mixed with our fears being met in the Christ of the
manger?
He never promised a quick fix, a panacea
that works overnight. However, in the
long run, He wins. We win with Christ,
our champion riding in on a white steed, flaming sword in hand at the end of
the age.
Meanwhile … we hang onto hope.
We trust his promises. What are they?
I will
never leave you or forsake you.
~Hebrews
13:5
I have
called you by name. You are mine.
~Isaiah 43:1-2
That sounds like a great place to store
my fears. How about you?
P Michael Biggs
Offering Hope
Encouragement Inspiration
One Word at a Time
Merry Christmas